A&P FALMOUTH has announced a record month with 13 dockings.

The yard provides maintenance and ship repair services for eight vessels per month on average, but reported an unexpectedly bumper month in February, marking a strong start to 2016.

Vessels included The Stena Europe – a ro/ro passenger ferry and Gulfmark’s Highland Eagle – a platform supply vessel. Work was also carried out on the RFA Argus and RFA Lyme Bay as part of A&P Group’s continued work in the defence sector and on the innovative wave energy convertor vessel, Wello Penguin. The Falmouth yard’s newly appointed managing director Gerald Pitts said: “It’s been a bumper month for us in many ways. The number of vessels has meant we’ve had an incredibly busy yard with our docks continually full, but it’s the wide range of work we’ve delivered that has really shown the breadth of technical skill and resource we have here.

“The team has replaced a main engine crankshaft, carried out extensive aluminium and steel repairs to hulls and car decks, completed in-situ machining and tail shaft maintenance and prepared and painted hulls, plus we’ve handled three separate cargoes. It has been a very encouraging start to 2016 for A&P Group and we hope to build on this further.”

Despite a strong start to the year sources close to A&P say that the next three months look to be a quiet time for UK ship repair yards including Falmouth.

A&P Group operates seven dry docks across three strategic locations in the UK and has a business in Australia that provides ship repair services and support to the Royal Australian Navy.